[T]he stories which came to his ears . . . sometimes spoke strange evil of her—of her violent temper, of her wicked tongue, of her outraging of all customs and decencies.

A flash of something like a look of scorn darted from under the brows of the cynical Grindlines, his very nose curled with angry disapprobation, as he threw down a pen which he had been mending or mismending, and muttered — A - M - P - L - I - T - I - C - A - T - I - O - N !!

The kitchen was crawling with cockroaches.

An arm of the Tethys known as the Turgai Strait was an important zoogeographic barrier, cutting Asia off from Europe.